Griz had 43 sacks last season. TH accounted for 18.
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Over/Under Sacks This Season
- Thread starter SoldierGriz
- Start date
bgbigdog said:
Might not have a one-man wrecking crew...but, don't we need someone to draw frequent double-teams. Kidder?
SoldierGriz said:
Loving all the football related posts :thumb:
There's a part of me that thinks we could go over 43 for a few reasons:
- Pass coverage suggests to be improved over last year = more coverage sacks
- More aggressive defensive scheme with heavier blitzes = more sacks in general
- Kidder at D-end should tally double digits in sacks
There's the other side of it though:
- Lots of projected run-heavy or lean to running offenses on the schedule (UNI, CPSLO, ISU, UNC, Sac, MSU)
- With all due respect to Kidder and Johnson I don't see either as a Wags or Holmes type of guy in terms of dominance
- While Peevey, Davidson, and Bradley are showing early they're good at plugging running lanes, haven't seen much QB pressure from them.
- General inexperience with so many new starters on defense
- Thin depth at a few positions that with a loss of a player or two things could be dicey. (mostly in the secondary)
- 1 less regular season game
I voted under, lean more to that side based on what these thoughts.
CV Griz Fan
Well-known member
SoldierGriz said:
Davidson SHOULD demand the double team in the middle. As a result, maybe some DE's come free. I'll take less sacks if the run D improves....
Richard Cranium
Well-known member
I predict more LB and safety blitzes and with our offense clicking better this year it will leave other teams to have to pass more in the 2nd half of the games which will result in more sacks. This will be a young but talented defense with more beef in the middle of the DL.
I'll take A and C Alex.
mtgrizrule
Well-known member
Pretty sad when more egrizzers would rather think the Cats suck than actually offer an opinion or analyze football.
I think the GRIZ go down in Sacks due to less experience at LB and the loss of Holmes.
I think the GRIZ go down in Sacks due to less experience at LB and the loss of Holmes.
mtgrizrule said:
Poll set up so you can select 2 options.
Nine sacks in the first scrimmage. And yes, I get it was against our offense. I think Semore clearly gets that he is going to have to manufacture pressure more so than was done in the last three or so seasons because there isn't a Wags or Holmes coming off the end. The 3-4 gives him some flexibility to send it in any number of different combinations and that's a key to forcing punts, turnovers and getting the ball back to the O.
Wisconsin had the best defense last season and they used the 3---4 formation and were damn good at stoping every offense they faced plus they were fun to watch. If we can perfect that with the right players we should be damn good and I think Semore is on to something big.
The sacks may come from various players in this type of defense. Interior linemen, safety, corners and of course Defensive ends. Heck, even some cheer-squad kids may be involved.
The sacks may come from various players in this type of defense. Interior linemen, safety, corners and of course Defensive ends. Heck, even some cheer-squad kids may be involved.
I'm glad the coaches are looking beyond the regular season. Sure you have to get to the playoffs but then you have to face teams....well, like...you know. The last UNDUSU game got to them, and it should have.
Griz defender Kidder transitions from tackle to end for senior season
AJ MAZZOLINI [email protected]
The plan was simple: find some big ol' boys to plug into the middle of Montana's defensive line, in turn freeing up the Grizzlies' best athlete in the trenches.
Well, mission accomplished.
With the winter addition of a pair of hefty junior college transfers at defensive tackle -- and a few others acquired on national signing day for down the road -- the Griz will use Caleb Kidder as an outside pass rusher for his senior season. Kidder, the No. 37 legacy jersey holder and a Helena Capital product, is making the move to D-end this spring.
Always a slim DT, his roster-listed 275 pounds a year ago spread out over a muscular 6-foot-5 frame, Kidder will give the Griz their strongest defensive look by abandoning his tackle position this year, defensive coordinator Jason Semore said.
"We had to increase our size all the way across the board for our philosophy and to win playoff games," said Semore, in his first year as coordinator after coaching the defensive safeties in 2015.
Montana signed 295-pounder Brandt Davidson from Scottsdale Community College and 270-pounder Myles McKee-Osibodu, both of whom are currently enrolled at UM and participating in spring practices. Each will be a junior this fall.
Their arrival allowed Kidder to shed a few pounds -- he's closer to 260 now -- and enhance his speed coming off the edge. It's taken some time after four years hunkered down in the middle, though there's still plenty of time to find comfort. On Monday the Griz wrapped up just their eighth practice of 15 for the spring.
"It was awkward being in space, not having two guys on me in every play," Kidder said with smile, "but it's been good coming off the edge, just one-on-ones every time, which is a good change.
"... I'm coming off the edge. I don't really have (as many) responsibilities. I'm just going to the quarterback."
***
Kidder was a wrecking ball last season and returns as the team's leading tackler after starting 12 games (he missed an early season contest after a minor leg surgery) at DT in 2015. He made 82 stops, 10 of them for losses, and picked up 3.5 sacks. He disrupted the passing game even more at the line of scrimmage with seven deflections, third-best on the team behind a pair of cornerbacks, and even intercepted a throw.
He'll still play the run at times during 3-4 looks in Montana's duplicitous front, but chasing quarterbacks is Kidder's primary job duty in traditional 4-3 sets -- and Semore expects a lot more than 3.5 sacks out of his rusher this time around.
"Next year we're asking Caleb to do that, be the dynamic guy and develop into that role," the coach said of having Kidder follow in the footsteps of recent Montana greats at DE like Tyrone Holmes and Zack Wagenmann.
"It gives you flexibility as a defensive coordinator in your play calling as far as playing zone and maybe blitzing sometimes and not others."
It also shores up a bit of an unknown for 2016 with Holmes, last year's STATS FCS Defensive Player of the Year, and the starter opposite him, Derek Crittenden, both gone to graduation. Combined with a meaty interior D-line, the Griz are thinking beyond regular-season play already.
"Tyrone is a great player, a great pass rusher, but teams could take him out of the game by just lining up and running power (behind a fullback) 40 times like North Dakota State," Semore said. "... You'd like to be big all the way across the board just because of the teams we see in the playoffs."
After a season-opening victory over NDSU at home last year, the Griz got thumped 37-6 in the second round of the playoffs in Fargo. Five weeks later North Dakota State hoisted the national championship trophy, its fifth straight title.
Montana, an 8-5 team in head coach Bob Stitt's first season, has found the ruler with which it wants to measure itself and Semore sees the shuffling in the trenches as a step in that direction.
Count Kidder's peers among those impressed as well.
"He's looking a lot quicker and he's causing some havoc for those offensive linemen over there," said Ryan Johnson, a fellow senior defensive end. "I think it'll be a big year for him."
Griz defender Kidder transitions from tackle to end for senior season
AJ MAZZOLINI [email protected]
The plan was simple: find some big ol' boys to plug into the middle of Montana's defensive line, in turn freeing up the Grizzlies' best athlete in the trenches.
Well, mission accomplished.
With the winter addition of a pair of hefty junior college transfers at defensive tackle -- and a few others acquired on national signing day for down the road -- the Griz will use Caleb Kidder as an outside pass rusher for his senior season. Kidder, the No. 37 legacy jersey holder and a Helena Capital product, is making the move to D-end this spring.
Always a slim DT, his roster-listed 275 pounds a year ago spread out over a muscular 6-foot-5 frame, Kidder will give the Griz their strongest defensive look by abandoning his tackle position this year, defensive coordinator Jason Semore said.
"We had to increase our size all the way across the board for our philosophy and to win playoff games," said Semore, in his first year as coordinator after coaching the defensive safeties in 2015.
Montana signed 295-pounder Brandt Davidson from Scottsdale Community College and 270-pounder Myles McKee-Osibodu, both of whom are currently enrolled at UM and participating in spring practices. Each will be a junior this fall.
Their arrival allowed Kidder to shed a few pounds -- he's closer to 260 now -- and enhance his speed coming off the edge. It's taken some time after four years hunkered down in the middle, though there's still plenty of time to find comfort. On Monday the Griz wrapped up just their eighth practice of 15 for the spring.
"It was awkward being in space, not having two guys on me in every play," Kidder said with smile, "but it's been good coming off the edge, just one-on-ones every time, which is a good change.
"... I'm coming off the edge. I don't really have (as many) responsibilities. I'm just going to the quarterback."
***
Kidder was a wrecking ball last season and returns as the team's leading tackler after starting 12 games (he missed an early season contest after a minor leg surgery) at DT in 2015. He made 82 stops, 10 of them for losses, and picked up 3.5 sacks. He disrupted the passing game even more at the line of scrimmage with seven deflections, third-best on the team behind a pair of cornerbacks, and even intercepted a throw.
He'll still play the run at times during 3-4 looks in Montana's duplicitous front, but chasing quarterbacks is Kidder's primary job duty in traditional 4-3 sets -- and Semore expects a lot more than 3.5 sacks out of his rusher this time around.
"Next year we're asking Caleb to do that, be the dynamic guy and develop into that role," the coach said of having Kidder follow in the footsteps of recent Montana greats at DE like Tyrone Holmes and Zack Wagenmann.
"It gives you flexibility as a defensive coordinator in your play calling as far as playing zone and maybe blitzing sometimes and not others."
It also shores up a bit of an unknown for 2016 with Holmes, last year's STATS FCS Defensive Player of the Year, and the starter opposite him, Derek Crittenden, both gone to graduation. Combined with a meaty interior D-line, the Griz are thinking beyond regular-season play already.
"Tyrone is a great player, a great pass rusher, but teams could take him out of the game by just lining up and running power (behind a fullback) 40 times like North Dakota State," Semore said. "... You'd like to be big all the way across the board just because of the teams we see in the playoffs."
After a season-opening victory over NDSU at home last year, the Griz got thumped 37-6 in the second round of the playoffs in Fargo. Five weeks later North Dakota State hoisted the national championship trophy, its fifth straight title.
Montana, an 8-5 team in head coach Bob Stitt's first season, has found the ruler with which it wants to measure itself and Semore sees the shuffling in the trenches as a step in that direction.
Count Kidder's peers among those impressed as well.
"He's looking a lot quicker and he's causing some havoc for those offensive linemen over there," said Ryan Johnson, a fellow senior defensive end. "I think it'll be a big year for him."
AZGrizFan said:
..........or not?
Total defense, less sacks the focus for Griz D-line
AJ MAZZOLINI [email protected]
Montana led the Big Sky Conference in sacks in three of the past five seasons and totaled the third-most quarterback takedowns of any FCS program, 43, last year. That trend may be ending in 2016 – and not just because of the graduation of pass-rushing phenom Tyrone Holmes.
"The numbers might go down, well they probably will because Tyrone is an unbelievable player, but our defensive line is not about just getting sacks," head coach Bob Stitt said last month on the eve of his team's first spring practice. "Their job is to play the run and the pass.
"I think you're just gonna see a better defense as a whole and I'm really excited about that. ... We're gonna get back to playing total defense rather than just statistical defense."
Montana's defensive identity is shifting this offseason under first-year coordinator Jason Semore, though only slightly in the observable realm. Semore's system began to rear its head at the end of last season and this spring is all about the players getting more comfortable with the tweaks he wants to make.
But there's a notable difference in feel for this edition of Montana's Dark Side.
"Less rules, more just going and playing football," senior lineman Caleb Kidder summed it up succinctly. "It's awesome; I love it."
Semore, the safeties coach a year ago, is taking over for the departed Ty Gregorak, who infamously defected to Montana State in December. He has stated many times he wants his defensive front to be multiple, a mix of three and four linemen depending on the situation. This week he talked more in depth about the responsibilities of those players in a Semore-run defense.
Of course there's rules, he said, but the 2016 Grizzlies will be more adept at adapting to opponent's offenses. There will be less set in stone.
"We give our guys a lot of freedom," said Semore, echoing the offensive philosophies of head coach Bob Stitt, for whom Semore led the defense in 2014 at Colorado School of Mines
"They communicate with each other within different position groups. They have opportunities to run different line games against different formations."
The Griz lost eight starters from that side of the ball, though Montana appears comfortable with its future at linebacker with a load of young and talented underclassmen in house. They needed help everywhere else, though.
The defensive line and the secondary were a focus in the offseason, both being addressed in the short term with the addition of transfers. Tackles Brandt Davidson (Scottsdale Community College) and Myles McKee-Osibodu (Santa Ana College) enrolled for spring semester while safety Justin Strong (Oregon State) will be in Missoula this summer.
The line especially needed revamping, though.
***
When the Griz square off with Saint Francis to open the season in September, it's highly likely all four line spots will feature a new starter. Gone are seniors like Holmes, the STATS FCS Defensive Player of the Year, Derek Crittenden and tackle Jamal Wilson. The trio accounted for 37 starts between them in 2015.
Kidder, the tackle adjacent to Wilson all last year, is moving outside to D-end to fill the void left by Montana's fearsome pass rusher. In the middle is likely to be some combination of juniors Davidson, McKee-Osibodu and returners Zach Peevey (senior), Nate Bradley (junior) and Kyle Davis (sophomore).
Peevey and Bradley drew first-string duties in Montana's initial spring scrimmage two weeks ago with the new guys seeing limited time.
"We've just got to get them mentally ready to play," Semore said of his transfer DTs. "Missed assignments still an issue, but the other guys have a year or two within the scheme."
Despite his size, the 5-foot-10, 260-pound Bradley made 28 tackles over 13 games with one start last year. Peevey, a Missoula Hellgate grad, was mired by injuries and appeared in 11 games with just five tackles.
On the outside, senior Ryan Johnson and junior Tucker Schye have been duking it out for playing time at D-end this spring while Kidder adjusts to the new position. Johnson has the edge in playing experience, having started two games a year ago in Crittenden's place. He made 33 stops and was second on the team with five sacks.
Without Holmes' presence, this year's Griz line will need to be more balanced, Johnson said. And it can be.
"I don't know if anyone will have 18 sacks individually," Johnson joked of Holmes' outrageous 2015 total. "It'll be great if one of us could, but I think we will be much more by committee this year. I think we've got three, four guys that can go out and put 10 up this year."
The Griz racked up nine sacks in their opening scrimmage, six coming from the D-line. Schye, entering his second season as a converted outside linebacker, had three while Johnson accounted for 2.5.
